The Island

Rating: 6/10 (28 September 2008)

I had heard this film was about cloning, and obviously I knew three of the stars, but not much else besides that, and the fact that Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers) was directing made it more appealing. Basically Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) along with hundreds of other "subjects" are living a seemingly Utopian facility, and all of them hope to be chosen in the lottery to go to "The Island", supposedly the last place on Earth with no contamination. It is after Lincoln's friend Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) is chosen that his curiosity really hits a high when he explores the facility more, and what he discovers is very disturbing. The women, or the "breeders" give birth to a new baby, and then they are killed, and as for the men, he witnesses lottery "winner" Starkweather Two Delta (The Green Mile's Michael Clarke Duncan killed trying to escape. Lincoln and Jordan are now on the run from head Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean) and his many forces, and they finally see that "The Island" is only a hologram, and they are in a near remote part of a desert-like land. When they find him, James McCord (Steve Buscemi), a worker in the facility, reveals to them that they are clones, copies of their real selves, and ultimately insurance policy, i.e. if the real person gets sick, they have a clone with identical backup organs, blood and any other body parts. Lincoln and Jordan, real names Tom Lincoln and Sarah Jordan by the way, are now heading for the house of the real Lincoln (another McGregor) to get more answers. It is when the real Lincoln is killed that clone Lincoln poses as him to get back to the facility, and along with Albert Laurent (Blood Diamond's Djimon Hounsou), who you first thought was with Merrick, both reveal the truth to all other "subjects", and stop all other cloning and so forth. Also starring Ethan Phillips as Jones Three Echo, Brian Stepanek as Gandu Three Echo, Noa Tishby as Community Announcer, Siobhan Flynn as Lima One Alpha, Saw's Shawnee Smith as Suzie and Apollo 13's Chris Ellis as Aces & Spades Bartender. Apparently it might be inspired by the film Logan's Run, and I found elements near to events in The 6th Day, but whatever you think, it has some interesting conspiracy material, McGregor might not do the greatest American accent compared to regular Scottish, but the chase and action sequences more than make up for tiny, tiny flaws. Good!